Thursday, September 29, 2016

Benedictine
Women Service Corps (BWSC), an outreach of Saint Benedict’s Monastery, St.
Joseph, Minn., invites College of Saint Benedict alumnae to join the monastic
community in deepening relationships that support justice and service in a new
location. Volunteers strive to live out the Benedictine Gospel values that were
formed during their undergraduate education in a capacity that will challenge
them personally, spiritually and professionally.

Mo Shannon, Erin Carey and Bethany Purkapile are the Benedictine
Women Service Corps volunteers for 2016-17. On September 1, they began a year's
service at Benedictine monasteries in Bristow, Va., and Erie, Pa.

Three Thursdays a month we will feature a blog post by one of
these volunteers. These women will share a bit of their experience within the
BWSC ministry and we ask that you pray for them as they extend Benedictine
values to the world during their year of service.

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿

(BWSC Volunteer Mo Shannon-Thornton)

Today, we introduce BWSC
volunteer blogger, Mo Shannon-Thornton, to you

Hello all! I first want to say
that I have the privilege of living with 27 amazing women. From the very
beginning, the sisters here in Bristow have been absolutely welcoming. These
women are truly a hoot! Many of them come from very diverse backgrounds, and
have fascinating vocation stories. While I’m excited to be living with these wonderful
women, I’m not fond of the 6:30 morning prayer, or the loud morning bell that
wakes me up every morning. I remember the first Morning Prayer I attended here.
I was so tired. Anyone who knows me on a personal level knows that I am not a
morning person AT ALL! However, when I walked in the chapel I was greeted by
Sister Charlotte’s pink fuzzy house slippers. I thought to myself, “Now she’s
got the right idea.”

I’ve been in Bristow, Va., just shy
of a month. Within the short amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve experienced a
wide range of emotions. My first week here I felt happiness, anxiousness and
sadness. This is partly because I came to Virginia with a couple of
preconceived notions on how easy it would be to help people. However, that most
definitely was the naiveté in me. I made up my mind that I was going to help a
lot of people, and leave my job everyday feeling fulfilled. But I learned
quickly that would not always be the case. For the first half of this year I
have been volunteering at BARN. BARN provides housing to families who are
homeless. These families can stay here anywhere from three to five months.
While living here, residences are required to attend bi-weekly programs that
teach them how to manage their finances, improve their education and parenting skills.
The interesting thing about working at BARN is that no work day is the same for
me. I enjoy Mondays and Tuesdays the best because I work directly with the
children. On Mondays I tutor, and Tuesdays I work with young girls 10 to 15
years old. I specifically asked my boss if I could work with these young girls
because I noticed by the second week of me working here, the girls seemed
disconnected with others around them. I also found myself leaving my job
discouraged because there had been many times I had to turn families down and
tell them they couldn’t stay at BARN. I knew in my heart there was some way I
could reach others, even if it wasn’t in the way I initially wanted to. Therefore,
I started a program called BARN’S “Bright Lights.”

The
purpose of my program is to serve as a safe space for young girls to flourish
in an environment where they will be taught about the importance of self-esteem,
body image, peer pressure and the overall importance of a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately,
we live in a society where women are objectified. Therefore, my hope is that my
program will encourage these young girls to see past their outer, and to let
their inner light shine through in every aspect of their lives.

The
group of girls I work with are characters. They are all full of life (sometimes
too full) and are incredibly intelligent. I’m really excited to see what the
year brings me, and my new program. And I can’t wait to share my future
experiences with you all! Blessings.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Walking
in the cemetery has often been a meditation for me.Recalling the last days of the suffering in
the lives of these Sisters while on earth astheir Living Stations of the Cross, I now view
my walk up and down the rows, recalling
them more like the Living Stations of the Saints.

In my
last three visits to our cemetery, I saw a beautiful white squirrel jumping
happily from one tombstone to another, looking a bit like playing hopscotch. It
was simply beinghappy jumping around as
it was meant to do. Or was it simply looking for nuts that were buried around
the edges of some of the tombstones? Do
these creatures sense their connection with thisholy ground? Does the remaining ashes of these deceased
Sisters enrich the soil making the grass more soft and pleasing to their tiny
feet? When one looks at the surrounding green hedges, and all the beautiful
trees of different kinds, different shapes, different textures, and different
sizes surrounding the whole cemetery, one can’t help but wonder if part of
their beauty comes from the Spirit of these Saints buried here since 1880”s. Does this squirrel, also one of God’s
creatures instinctly live out its “Godliness” becoming a reflection of the beauty of God?
And we as human beings with the same Creator,
are we attracted to all the beauty, including this white squirrels for the same
reason? Even though the decayed bodies
arestill here, their ashes, or dust,
are holy, making it holy ground.

Often
before leaving the cemetery, and walking between the rows, knowing they are
ashes but believing that their Spirit is
alive,I read the names of these Sister-Saints
out loud and ask for their intercession, that their Spirit be very much present
guiding our communityin our discernment
process in electing our next prioress.Hoping to see my white furry friend again.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

BWSC participant Erin Carey

I’ve learned many
things after moving into Mount Saint Benedict in Erie, Pa. While I’ve only
been here for three weeks, I’ve compiled a list of what I’ve learned so
far.

Most people
are not as excited about planes taking off as I appeared to be on my first
flight. While looking around excitedly as we rose into the air, looking for
someone to share my joy and awe, the man next to me was already asleep and the
woman next to him was engrossed in her book. I suppose nerves and excitement
about my first flight were a bit amplified for me. Luckily, after Bethany and
Mo got me to my gate everything went smoothly and I found out that I enjoy
flying. Hooray!

If you live
in Erie, you are not really a resident until you have smelled … THE GRAPES.
Being so close to the lake has its perks. One of which is being close to the
grapes fields, which this time of year smell sweet and taste delicious! Another
perk of living in Erie: the lake. During my first few weeks, Jessica, a
volunteer from Mexico who is also staying here at the Mount, and I got to go to the beach a few times for a swim in Lake Erie. The lake is also home to some stunning sunsets!

Notre Dame Football
is a big deal. Also, I recently found out that I am a Pittsburg Steelers fan.
(There may have been some arm twisting here.)The
Benedictine Block, also known as E. 10th Street, has become my home
away from home ... away from home. This is where many of the sisters’
ministries are located, including St. Benedict’s Education Center and the
Neighborhood Art House.

Refugees
have wide smiles and inspiring stories, despite the difficult lives they’ve led.
I spend my mornings tutoring refugees one on one with conversational English,
reading and math. These people from Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria,
the Congo, Bhutan and Nepal are examples of the Benedictine values of work,
community and hospitality. They work together to understand another language
and culture, while providing for their children and families in a foreign place.
The refugees and teachers also welcomed me into their classes and community
with care.

Music and
laughter are a basis of communication at the Art House. I teach a general music
class and assist in art classes and tutoring. For students who do not speak English,
and for those who do, my class has used music, along with a lot of giggling, to
make students feel comfortable around each other and comfortable making music
in our little classroom. We’ve been drumming, marching to the beat, playing
percussion instruments and singing.

Community
life is hard work! With prayer, mass, meals, ministry and now Schola practice,
time each day seems to slip away! I cherish the time spent in the quiet of
chapel with the sisters. (How could I not, with a view of this stained glass!)

The list could go on,
but I have enjoyed settling in to Mount Saint Benedict, getting to know the
community and the people who I serve and am served by every day. I am looking
forward to the rest of my journey in the coming months!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Maybe some of you rarely find yourself being
jealous of others.But for those of us
who occasionally succumb to it, we may be missing an invitation to let our envy
teach us something.According to Kristi
Nelson, Executive Director of A Network
for Grateful Living, “Envy is painful if we leave it as
unexamined covetousness.”

When our internal reserves are too depleted to
“look within” for a remedy for our feelings of jealousy, we sometimes need to look
outside ourselves.We can scan the lives
of those around us that inspire us and notice why we admire them. Noticing what
triggers our admiration can reveal to us what we feel is lacking in our current
lives and how we might choose to rediscover and foster our latent longings and
belongings. Though this exploration can be an unusual and humbling process, we
can actually let the roots of our envy become our guide to rediscovering what
makes us feel alive and connected again.

The choice to do this envy-exploration can potentially nudge us into remembering and naming our latent longings
and belongings and recall many things that have stirred our souls. It can even
alert us to simple and enlivening choices we can again begin to make.Many of us have found that God’s face is
often recognized in persons who regularly follow their authentic longings and
delights.Eventually you might even hear
yourself whispering, “Alive again, alive again, Thank God I’m alive again”.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Benedictine Women Service Corps (BWSC), an outreach of Saint
Benedict’s Monastery, St. Joseph, Minn., invites College of Saint Benedict
alumnae to join the monastic community in deepening relationships that support
justice and service in a new location. Volunteers strive to live out the
Benedictine Gospel values that were formed during their undergraduate education in a capacity that will challenge them
personally, spiritually and professionally.

(Bethany, Mo and Erin) Photo by Tammy Shoemaker, OSB

Mo Shannon, Erin Carey and Bethany Purkapile are the
Benedictine Women Service Corps volunteers for 2016-17. On September 1, they
began a year's service at Benedictine monasteries in Bristow, Va., and Erie,
Pa.

Three Thursdays a month we will feature a blog post by one of
these volunteers. These women will share a bit of their experience within the
BWSC ministry and we ask that you pray for them as they extend Benedictine values
to the world during their year of service.

“Change can be scary, but you know what’s scarier? Allowing
fear to stop you from growing, evolving and progressing.” -Mandy Hale

Leaving Saint Benedict’s Monastery and getting to the airport,
I was terrified. Besides going on a weeklong college visit on the east coast, I
have never been east. However, my first week in Bristow has been one for the
books! I absolutely love it here, besides the humidity. The sisters are so
welcoming and the grounds are breathtaking. The birds, hummingbirds, deer,
gophers, squirrels and deer are endless on the grounds. In addition, the
monastery has cats and three dogs that they care for (I am absolutely loving that
aspect)! The community is very similar to Saint Ben’s, but much smaller in
numbers. I have my own room right down the hall from Mo and the “live-ins”
(women who are living here and discerning about joining the monastery). It is
pretty small, but I don’t spend much time in there other than sleeping and
getting ready for my day. Even though I was terrified, I think this year will
be such an incredible experience where I will grow and evolve in so many
instances!

For the first half of this year I will be spending my time at
Beacon, where I will be teaching English to adult language learners English in
the classrooms using technology, both familiarizing students with English, and
giving immediate

feedback on their work and technology.

For my first week at Beacon, I mainly observed how classes are
taught. As I sat observing my first class of Adult English Language Learners on
Tuesday, I was amazed at what I witnessed. I saw adults, many of whom are older
than I am, sitting in a classroom preparing for just another day of learning
English. One student from Afghanistan came to the United States in search of a
safer environment, leaving behind his entire family and a high paying,
governmental job. He is learning English to be able to communicate better with
his customers at Walmart where he is a cashier. He is strong in his passion to
learn English to better himself, but he’s doing that by leaving everything he
knew, everything he was back home in Afghanistan. There was no doubt in my mind
that this student, in particular, was being asked to handle a situation that I
would deem unjust.

﻿

An old silo that the monastery turned into a prayer space

Later in the week, I was asked a question regarding my
experience in this class: “Do you think immigrants who come to the United
States should be required to learn English before getting a job?” I think my
answer would have been different prior to sitting in on these classes. How could
we require individuals who come to the United States seeking safety and care to
learn English prior to getting a job? Is it solely so that we can easily
communicate with them? Simply so that they can understand us? Just so our jobs
are easier? These students sit in class for approximately 4-6 hours a week so
that they can better communicate with us by learning English and “American
culture,” but what am I doing as an individual to learn about them, about where
they come from or about their culture? They are required to learn about
American culture and our ways of living, but we disregard their culture, the
troubles that they have overcome. We disregard everything they have come from
and ask them to follow who we are without any attempt from us to learn about
them.

Monday morning, September 12th, I start my first
official day in the classroom,

A deer out on the monastery lawn

leading class all by myself! I am a bit nervous
and feeling a little underprepared, but I think after my first time of just
doing it on my own I will start to get the hang of it.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Words have such great power, either to bless or to wound!I have been truly blessed by Pastor Eugene H.
Peterson’s rendition of the New Testament in contemporary language. He makes me
want to read and read and read; I love words! But he also makes me want to stop
and ponder! That’s the way it is with chapter 12 of Paul’s letter to the
Romans.I have read it every day this
week.Frankly I believe God is wanting
me to ponder the message!Listen,
then—as your read—this portion of Romans 12.Maybe God’s message will touch your ears and hearts, too:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your
everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around
life—and place it before God as an offering.Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for
him.Don’t become so well-adjusted to
your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.Instead, fix your attention on God.You’ll be changed from the inside out.Readily recognize what he wants from you, and
quickly respond to it.Unlike the
culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God
brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

“I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God
has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to
you.Living then, as every one of you
does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as
people who are bringing this goodness to God.No, God brings it all to you.The
only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does
for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

“In this way we are like the various parts of a human
body.Each part gets its meaning from
the body as a whole, not the other way around.The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people.Each of us finds our meaning and function as
a part of his body.But a chopped-off
finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much would we?So since we find ourselves fashioned into all
these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body,
let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be,without enviously or pridefully comparing
ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

“If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if
you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if
you give encouraging guidance, be careful thatyou don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate;if you’re called to give aid to people in
distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the
disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by
them.Keep a smile on your face.

“Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. . . .
Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. . . .Bless your enemies; no
cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy;
share tears when they’re down. . . . Discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got
it in you, get along with everybody.Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. ‘I’ll do the
judging.’ says God. ‘I’ll take care of it.’

“Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go
buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink.Your generosity will surprise him with
goodness.Don’t let evil get the best of
you; get the best of evil by doing good.”

Those words, that message are for me, Lord. May my life and my
words mirror that message today. Thank you. Amen.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Lynda Gradert is an oblate from
Saint Benedict's Monastery,
St. Joseph, Minn.
She lives in Minneapolis, Minn.

Recently I followed up with a woman who had
expressed interest in becoming an oblate. I asked if she wanted to grab a quick
cup of coffee and have a conversation about it. She replied “No, being an
oblate takes too much time.” I was dumbfounded. Had she been open to it I
would’ve liked to ask her “What does being an oblate mean to you?”

I’ve been asking myself that same question a lot
over the last year. A few of us oblates have been engaging with Sister Laureen Virnig,
Oblate Director at Saint Benedict’s Monastery, on how to invite people into the
oblate way of life. We are having our first “Come and See” event on Saturday,
October 1, at 9:30 a.m., at Saint Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn., on
starting a conversation with those that are interested in pursuing becoming an
oblate.As a part of this event, I’ve
been asked to talk about what why I choose to be an oblate.

I became an oblate when I was a senior at the
College of Saint Benedict. I did so because I felt a strong connection to the
sisters and I wanted that connection to continue when I was no longer living on
campus. I also wanted what they had, and I felt becoming an oblate and living
the same values that they lived would help get me there.

I tell people being an oblate is about seeking God
in community. It’s about growing closer to Christ by how I engage in what I do
each day. One of the ways I do this is by practicing hospitality. Having family
and friends to my house, being present with a friend while she tells me about
her day, listening to a co-worker share about her daughter’s health issues, making
eye contact and greeting the person who holds the cardboard sign on the street
corner asking for help are some of the ways I get to practice hospitality.

I’m moving through some difficult spiritual
transitions right now. The practice of stability has always been one of the
most enduring principles that I practice so “listening carefully … with the ear
of my heart” to God and my life has become, at times, a minute by minute
practice. This transition has been incredibly painful. I’ve been able to share
this and gain perspective from my spiritual advisor and some good friends. I’m
not alone in this.

I think that’s also why I chose to and continue to
choose to be an oblate. St. Benedict wrote this Rule as “this little … Rule for
beginners.” We’re all beginners and we all grow in holiness together by living
out this Rule every day and in everything we do.

We invite you to join us at the event at Saint
Benedict’s Monastery on Saturday, October 1. The oblate way of life is a deeply
nourishing lifestyle. Come, join the conversation. You can also learn more
about oblates and the oblate way of life here. You can also contact the Oblate
Director, Laureen
Virnig, OSB, at lvirnig@csbsju.edu.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Did
you ever think that a jar of dill pickles and community living could be similar
in a variety of ways? As one who makes dill pickles let me explain. The first
step in the process of pickling is preparing the produce by picking and
cleaning the cucumbers, onions, and dill. The second step involves preparing
the jars along with the brine which is the transforming liquid of water,
vinegar, salt, and sugar. As the cucumbers, onions, garlic, and dill are packed
into the jar, they need one another to transform the cucumber into a pickle.
Within a monastic community, we need one another to become our best self. So
you see, both cucumbers and community members need assistance from their
surroundings to assist them and transform them into something more wonderful. As
the brine works its magic with the cucumber, prayer and daily living works its
magic for each community member. In community as we pray and work side by side,
we are seeking God. Our monastic commitment to one another is part of the
magic. We come to realize that we need one another day after day. We take the
time to pray and be transformed, thus allowing us to better service the church,
the world, and one another. As day after day the pickling process takes time,
monastic commitment is a day by day commitment to be lived out faithfully. If
you would like more information about our Benedictine community, please contact
Sister Lisa Rose at lrose@csbsju.edu.

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Welcome to our blog!

This blog is maintained by a group of Sisters at Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. We try to post weekly and often succeed at that.
The opinions on this blog belong to individual writers and do not reflect any official position of the monastery. Please feel free to comment on any of the entries-- comments are moderated, but we'll publish any reasonable comment.